


Naruto Twitter drabbles

by lee_andrews



Category: Naruto
Genre: Drabble Collection, Multi, check chapter titles and notes for individual genres and warnings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:01:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lee_andrews/pseuds/lee_andrews
Summary: These are little drabbles that I've written on Twitter and that were mostly requested by my followers (@slyCicero if you want to follow me or request something). There is an equivalent collection in Russian (https://archiveofourown.org/works/27527308) and, basically, depending on the language the text was requested in, I will write the original and then translate it into the other language.If I wrote one of these drabbles for you and you have an account here and want this work in your gift section, please, tell me and I will add you :)Please, consult chapter names and notes for individual ratings, warnings and hashtags.
Relationships: Gaara & Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara/Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Maito Gai | Might Guy, Hatake Kakashi & Tenten, Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy, Hyuuga Hinata/Rock Lee, Maito Gai | Might Guy/Uchiha Obito, Rock Lee/Nara Shikamaru
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	1. Kakashi/Gai: M, romance, drama

**Author's Note:**

  * For [InuKidGakupo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InuKidGakupo/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Миниатюрки из Твиттера](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27527308) by [lee_andrews](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lee_andrews/pseuds/lee_andrews). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings: mild sexual content, biting, swearing, "Hatake Kakashi is bad at feelings"  
> Inspired by Florence + The Machine - What kind of man

With each time, Kakashi bites harder and harder. Of course, Gai wouldn't even deign to call this feeling pain. Pain does not make you moan like that, nor feel this heavy heat below your navel, nor forget yourself like that while begging for more... and more... and more... And Kakashi is very happy to oblige: he wants to mark every square inch of Gai's body. He has his reasons. Even if this idiot wanted to ask someone for a date: some rosy-cheeked milkmaid or that porter from the market who laughs at his jokes all the time (because no shinobi in Konoha would dare approach Gai for anything romantic or sexual, Kakashi made sure of that), he wouldn't be able to, he'd be too ashamed and embarrassed to try that while Kakashi's marks are all over his body.

...Kakashi pulls his mask down.  
"Kiss me. I know you want to."  
Actually, that is what Kakashi wants Gai to do. The desires of his rival are extremely hard to guess. Kakashi has been watching Gai for a long time now to know that his behaviour could mean anything from "you are my brother" to "every night before going to sleep I think of fucking you on the kitchen table until you forget all the words you know, except my name". Kakashi really hopes for the latter, but then, of course, all of it could also mean "I love you more than life and I want to be with you always", yet Kakashi chases this thought away from his mind.  
Gai freezes. Kakashi cannot read his face and, for a moment, feels afraid. Has he been wrong? Are they really just brothers in Gai's head? However, Gai quickly comes to, reduces the distance between them in one swift stride and kisses Kakashi. The kiss is all wrong though: it's sweet and tender as if Kakashi's made out of rice paper. That's not the kiss of someone who wants to fuck you into oblivion. It's a kiss of someone who--- Kakashi's brain tries to warn him, give him a signal, make him panic and save himself from this terrible dangerous temptation, but Kakashi does not have the time to follow his own thoughts: he's lost in the warm touch of the soft lips, in Gai's scent, so familiar and calming. His hands find their way to touch Gai's silky black hair and now it's too late... way too late...

...Gai doesn't say that he loves Kakashi and why would he? In the past years, he's always been exactly where Kakashi needs him and when he needs him, like a loyal dog keeping to its master. One doesn't have to be a genius to recognise the reality of it and if Kakashi hasn't addressed it in any way so far, well, then he probably doesn't consider it worth talking about.  
Of course, Gai thinks this whole ordeal is his fault: another would have placed boundaries a long time ago, made up rules, stopped this madness. But Gai just cannot do it. Maybe every shinobi needs at least one unhealthy habit in their lives. And Kakashi is Gai's.

"I will only stop coming over if you will."  
"I cannot stop visiting you! You are my Rival! And a very clumsy and careless Rival at that! If I stop visiting you, you will starve or drown in filth! I cannot let this happen!"  
Of course, they both know it's not true. Kakashi can handle his daily affairs just fine and he actually stopped taking care of himself precisely _because_ Gai was so insistent on helping. Because he needed a reason to come over. Because he needed a reason to kiss Kakashi while something was cooking on the stove. Because he needed a reason to stay for the night when it was "too late to go home". And keep up appearances during the day as if nothing has ever happened.  
This was their first conversation about the whole situation and it ended with nothing. Kakashi was juggling words, making it seem as if he's doing this for Gai and not for himself. He succeeded in making Gai feel guilty and, thus, avoiding the need to respond seriously.  
When Kakashi leaves, Gai yells after him:  
"What kind of man loves like this?!"  
"Who says I love?" Kakashi shrugs his shoulders coolly as he walks out the door.

...Kakashi has never seen Gai so... colourless?  
"I'm tired, Kakashi. I can't do this anymore. I want to live openly, to spend more time together, to wake up every morning next to you, to hear back all those words that I want to keep saying to you over and over again. If you don't want to give me this, please, I beg you, just let me go."  
After so many years in this deadlock, it seems to Kakashi that it's actually not the matter of "don't want to", but a matter of "can't". He's really sorry. He really wants to let Gai go. But he can't do that either, because Gai is his one unhealthy habit.  
Kakashi gets up and approaches the stove.  
"Let's have some tea, Gai. Talk about your students? It's been a while since we've just talked."  
"And then you'll leave?" Gai asks guardedly.  
"Of course," Kakashi lies with his most sincere smile on.


	2. Lee/Hinata; T, beginning of a romance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Post-canon.

It seems to Lee that the way she moves is wrong: too graceful, too smooth, not forceful enough, arm movements too open. But then he remembers that such is the style of the Hyūga. Then he is really tempted to ask her to wear a shirt with long wide sleeves, so that every move of hers becomes the beat of the wings of a mysterious magical bird. Neji loved birds, especially hawks, but Lee is too shy to ask what Hinata's favourite bird is.  
It doesn't even occur to him to not fight all out. If anyone knows a genius of hard work on sight, it's Lee. He knows exactly what Hinata is capable of, sees the flame of youth burning brightly in her heart, though she blushes a little every time he tells her that. However, he sees how happy it makes her to hear the words of encouragement from Gai-sensei who's been visiting their sparring sessions. Neji would have been proud. Or rolled his eyes. Probably both.  
Lee wants for their joint training to go on forever. Hinata is usually too busy with clan affairs, spending most of her time in the Hyūga compound, and Lee is reluctant to go there and ask about her or invite her for a walk. After all, he isn't significant enough to be friends with a clan princess. He would, of course, deny having these thoughts, but he believes that is exactly what Hinata's clanspeople were going to think of him.

"Ano... Lee-kun... Do you want to go see some cranes?" Hinata shakes her head. "You are probably not interested, sorry. I just thought..."  
"Cranes? Of course, I am interested!!" Lee makes wild placatory gestures with his hands. "I really love birds!! I just did not know cranes nested around these parts."  
"They avoid settlements, but there is a spot at the river, a couple of days away from here. Neji-nii-san used to go there with me and sometimes it turned out to be a small adventure. If Lee-kun wanted to join me this time, I would be very happy," Hinata's voice sounds calm, but the blush on her cheeks betrays her worry.  
"Of course!!" Lee nods enthusiastically. "This is going to be out first mission together!! It is a great honour travelling with you, Hinata-san!!"

Lee bows and Hinata blushes even deeper because of this formality. She really wants to ask him to call her simply Hinata, but decides to take it slow. After all, they are going on a trip together now and such things always help build trust and companionship, as Gai-sensei told her. Maybe she will finally be able to show Lee that she is worthy of him. Even if she doesn't carry the fire of the Eight Gates inside her, she can still fight back to back with him in the glow of her blue lion chakra. It seemed to Hinata that Lee and her have become quite proficient in fighting together over the last time, but they almost never spoke outside of their sparring sessions and Hinata couldn't understand why. She thought she wasn't good enough. She was afraid that Lee thinks her incapable and talentless and only continues to help her with her training because he feels obligated to Neji. However, when Hinata as much as hinted at that in a conversation with Gai-sensei, he yelled at her so loudly it made Hinata's ears hurt for a while. And that was what gave her the confidence to invite Lee to watch the cranes. Neji-nii-san would have been pround.


	3. Kakashi & Gai: G, childhood, youth

Kakashi looked into the distance, trying to ignore Gai swinging his legs in the air. Not very successfully, however, since Kakashi's peripheral vision kept picking up this annoying movement. Unfortunately for him, there was only one way to stop it: by starting a conversation.  
"So what's this 'youth' your dad keeps going on about?"  
"Huh?" Gai froze, surprised at the question, and blinked a couple of times while trying to collect his usually chaotic thoughts.  
"Youth. That your dad keeps talking about."  
"Youth... well... it's... uhm..." Gai hesitated. His little hands balled into fists betraying his insecurity even further.  
Kakashi turned his head to look his most-definitely-absolutely-not-friend (and he would never, ever, ever, ever call Gai a _rival_ ) in the eyes.  
"Just like I thought," Kakashi said sternly. "You don't even know what this youth is. You're just a little boy who blindly imitates everything his father says or does."  
Gai's chubby cheeks coloured crimson, his eyes went wide with indignation and he pursed his lips into a thin line.  
"I know very well what youth is, Kakashi! And I'm going to prove this to you!"  
A moment later Kakashi suddenly found himself in an upright position, running or, to be precise, being dragged by the running Gai. At that, Kakashi just sighed: it was utterly useless to object now, since Gai would not respond nor give in until they would arrive wherever he wanted them to be. The place he wanted them to be was, apparently, the riverbank, and Kakashi looked at Gai questioningly. The smile he received in return was even brighter and wider than usual. "Well, that's not a good sign," Kakashi thought to himself belatedly as he was being pushed into the river by the grinning Gai. As Kakashi was making his way for the surface of the water, he felt Gai jumping in after him and, of course, he didn't let Kakashi get out onto the riverbank. The boys kept wrestling in the pleasant coolness of the water, splashing and tickling and laughing so hard, Kakashi even forgot to think about how disgustingly childish they were at that moment. It seemed an eternity had passed until they finally made it back onto the ground and then Gai wiggled his forefinger at Kakashi and proudly pronounced in a much deeper voice than he usually spoke with (definitely trying to imitate Dai here).  
"Youth means living your life to the fullest, Kakashi! It means believing that good things will happen and giving this certainty to others! It means making life nicer for the people you care about!"  
When Gai stood tall like that, his chest puffed up with pride, his black hair and wide smile shining in the sun - _how does he always manage to find this perfect pose?_ \- Kakashi really wanted to believe him. But he was afraid that if he was ever going to show that to Gai, he would just burst from the feeling of self-importance. And so Kakashi just shrugged indifferently.  
"What a load of sentimental nonsense."  
However, judging by the fact that Gai's smile hadn't faded even a little bit, he could probably see through Kakashi's little act.


	4. Tenten & Kakashi (background KakaGai): M, friendship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings: underage drinking, mentions of war and character death.  
> Post-canon, Hokage Kakashi.

"I'll cover you," an annoyed sigh reaches Kakashi through the open window.  
He doesn't usually know the duty roster of his personal guard. That's Tenzō's territory and he is all too happy to keep his "irresponsible" boss out of it. And Kakashi is actually grateful for having one less headache. This voice he's just heard, however, he'd recognise anywhere.  
"What are you talking about, Tenten?"  
Obviously, Kakashi should call her Leopard, because such is the mask she carries, but, seriously, this is _Tenten_. Kakashi remembers this girl biting her bottom lip while Gai was tending to her scraped knees, and he just cannot bring himself to call her by this pretentious codename, no matter how deadly and dangerous she is now. Tenzō is not here, but Kakashi can just _hear_ the sound of him rolling his eyes and muttering under his breath that you really shouldn't expect anything else from a man who used to walk around Konoha in broad daylight wearing his ANBU uniform without the mask. But, frankly, Tenten herself doesn't seem to mind Kakashi's breach of protocol, because she actually responds back in kind.  
"You've sighed absolutely pitifully fifteen times within the last hour," Tenten explains patiently. "It seems to me you'd really like to have this evening off, Kakashi. And because I'm so nice and understanding, I'm letting you go and promise to cover your ass."

***

It's been a while since he became just "Kakashi", in fact, it happened on the first day he _officially_ stayed with Gai for the night. The morning after, while he was sitting in Gai's kitchen, wearing only his underwear and his mask and waiting for Gai to finish his shower, Tenten and Lee burst into the flat. "Right, it's Gai's students, who would have thought they would have a key to his flat," Kakashi thought himself doomed. While Lee was drowning in second-hand embarrassment, bowing and apologising for the intrusion, Tenten cut him off by proclaiming that now was the last chance for Kakashi to retreat without any consequences. Kakashi looked her sharply in the eyes and said that he was not going to retreat anywhere, which prompted Tenten to get a bottle of sake out of her pouch.  
"Aren't you a bit too young for this?" Kakashi raised his eyebrow.  
"If we're not too young to fight and lose our loved ones in a war, I think we'll manage this just fine," Tenten waved him off briskly.  
With this, Kakashi really couldn't argue.  
Of course, Lee was still drinking tea, but that's an entirely different story.

***

"Thanks for the kindness, Tenten," Kakashi smiles, "but I took on this position fully accepting my responsibility."  
"Yeah, yeah," he can hear Tenten's sarcastic smirk from the outside. "You know what, Kakashi, if you're gonna sigh as much as once within the next twenty minutes, I'm gonna kick you out of this office myself."  
"Tenzō is not going to be happy about this."  
"Oh that's so scary!" Tenten laughs. "You have no idea how much taichō actually coddles us. Just please, don't tell him that, he thinks himself fierce and he's gonna get so upset."  
_It seems by now, all of them were so tired of losing._  
Kakashi puts his current paperwork down and shakes his head.  
"You talk as if you want me to leave."  
"I do," Tenten admits. "You haven't seen your bloodshot eyes. Whoever comes over with the next official visit is gonna think you lied about losing your Sharingan. Really, just go home, Kakashi. Let sensei read Icha Icha out loud to you or something."  
"Alright," Kakashi sighs. "But Tenzō---"  
"Don't worry about him," Kakashi can hear the smile in Tenten's voice. "I'll handle him. I took on this position fully accepting my responsibility."  
With this, Kakashi really couldn't argue.


	5. Naruto/Gaara: G, romantic or not - that's up to you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Post-canon, Hokage Naruto, Kazekage Gaara.

Naruto often stands on top of the Hokage Rock, watching the village with his sharp gaze and praying for the Will of Fire to show him the way to resolve yet another important and complicated issue. The Kage Summits have always been hard on Naruto and he was all the more grateful when they had one happen in Konoha. It helped him concentrate on his goals, be more collected and mindful of the people he carried out his duties for.

Even deep in thought, Naruto always pays attention to his surroundings. His senses are heightened, trained to notice anything unusual, however small and insignificant, ready to be the first to recognise the danger. That is why he couldn't even understand what exactly alarmed him to Gaara's presence. Was it the fluctuation of his chakra? The deliberately loud steps? Tiny grains of sand, spinning in the air? Or perhaps, the slight scent of dust, sage, creosote and salt that for a moment made Naruto think he was instantly teleported to Suna with some unknown technique? For that was the smell of the desert - and Gaara, of the element and its deity. Naruto, of course, knows the man behind the mythos very well, but sometimes even he gives in to the charm of the legend of Gaara of the Sand.

"It is going to be fine, Naruto," Gaara speaks in a calm voice that carries the vastness of the desert under the sky. "After all, we all wish for the same thing, it is simply our methods that differ."  
"That's what annoys me the most!" exclaims Naruto. "If we hadn't been arguing about these stupid little details all the time, we would have achieved so much more!"  
"You are not doing justice either to the Kage Summit or yourself. Let me remind you of everything we have accomplished since the Last war ended."  
They all call that war "the Last", with a capital L, somewhat superstitiously hoping that even this little detail would help them bring about a peaceful future. After all, Naruto has been repeating all his life that he was going to become the Hokage and, lo and behold, it actually worked.  
"No, please, don't!" Naruto waves his hands about.  
Gaara is a walking history book and everyone knows that. He gives his all, so that people _remember_. Ōnoki once joked that the main duty of the Kazekage was to make sure the other kage did not change their course and did not betray themselves and their principles, but it seems Gaara took that statement very seriously.

"I'm just so tired," Naruto admits, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I don't know whether I could have stomached it if it wasn't for Shikamaru."  
"You would not have," Gaara says decidedly, but explains his thought hastily when he sees a tinge of hurt in Naruto's eyes. "What I mean by this is that you are not a politician, Naruto. You are a hero and negotiations at a table are not your natural habitat. You needed a guide and you found him in Shikamaru. There is nothing shameful in that."  
"You say that like you're not a hero," smirks Naruto. "And yet you are perfectly natural in all this diplomacy."  
Gaara shakes his head.  
"I have always been a Kazekage first, and a hero second."  
"Not to me, you weren't," Naruto smiles fondly.  
Gaara does not betray his surprise, but Naruto sees his eyes widen just for a split second. He wants to spare Gaara the discomfort of having to respond to this, and so offers to return back to the Summit venue.

"I hope I can count on Suna's full support in the near future."  
Gaara nods slowly.  
"Of course, Naruto. Always."


	6. Shikamaru/Lee: T, teenagers in love, first kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: vague mention of teenage sexuality, the characters are about 15 years old.

It seemed to be a matter of perspective. Shikamaru was lying on the grass, watching the skies and the world passed him by. He was an observer. People, events, changes - Shikamaru watched it all from the outside, being as objective and impartial as possible, analysing their very nature and, thus, coming to understand them.

Lee, however, did exactly the opposite. He made the world go round. He was a doer. Whatever happened, wherever it happened, Lee was always in the thick of it, trying to actively participate and feel the events with his immense heart and, thus, come to understand them.

Chōji once noticed the very particular gaze Shikamaru was watching Konoha's Subtle Green Whirlwind with and clapped his hand on his best friend's shoulder, proclaiming, "Go for him, you are basically yin and yang." Shikamaru only shrugged his shoulders and muttered that making that kind of effort would be a real drag.

As it turned out, however, he didn't have to make any kind of effort, because Rock Lee was moving the world all by himself, and there was nothing left for Shikamaru to do, but observe.

Observe how Lee's words that he implicitly trusts Shikamaru's judgement made him scratch the top of his head in an attempt to hide his shy excitement.

Observe how absolutely innocent (?) friendly (???) touches from Lee made his body feel hot and then cold and then hot again.

Observe how his own thoughts got distracted from watching the rest of the world to think about one unreachable Lee.

The latter annoyed Shikamaru greatly and while he knew the perfect solution to that problem, he still wasn't doing anything about it.

However, the world around him was already being moved the right way.

Once, after a joint sparring session between the teams of Gai and Asuma, Lee approached Shikamaru in the changing room. Neji and Chōji had already left to organise dinner for everyone, and so the boys were alone in the room. Lee came up to Shikamaru with a very serious expression in his eyes that he always had whenever he was prepared to learn something new and important.  
"Maybe my request will seem strange to you, Shikamaru-kun. I apologise for this in advance and it goes without saying that you can deny it. I just need to figure out something for myself. And for this, I need to know whether I can kiss you."  
As Shikamaru was looking into Lee's serious black eyes, he could swear he'd heard the invisible mechanisms that were making the world spin around him come to a halt. There'd been a click, everything was in perfect position and the world had stopped moving. Shikamaru observed how his voice trembled slightly as he said "yes".

Lee was kissing with a lot of tenderness, gently pressing Shikamaru's lower lip between his own. When he pulled back - way too fast - Shikamaru asked, "So, did you figure it out?"  
Lee nodded, "Yes, I have. I am in love with you, Shikamaru-kun. Thank you for helping me realise that."  
He blushed and moved to go away, not expecting any answer from Shikamaru. But he grabbed Lee by the arm just in time to prevent him from leaving.  
"Kiss me again."  
Lee's eyes went impossibly round, and Shikamaru smiled.  
"Maybe you've learnt everything you needed to know, but I think that cognition is a long process and doesn't tolerate haste. And I didn't have enough time to observe us and make proper conclusions."  
"Proper... conclusions?" Lee asked tentatively.  
"Yeah," Shikamaru nodded, "for instance, about the best excuse we could find to disappear from today's dinner."

In only a couple of moments, Shikamaru observed that when a person kissing you is smiling, you can feel their smile on your lips.


	7. Kakashi & Naruto: T, sensei's thoughts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning: mentions of character deaths

Kakashi looks at Naruto and sees Minato-sensei. It's hard not to, with those lively blue eyes and blond hair sticking out to all sides. Naruto dreams big, just like his father did. Yet when he opens his mouth, Kakashi sees Kushina-san in front of him: sometimes hot-tempered and impatient, but a good heart willing to help regardless of whether the others would accept this help or not. Kakashi, however, doubts that any of those qualities will make Naruto's life better or easier as a result. After all, they didn't for his parents, and if Kakashi was honest, one could even say that precisely these qualities led Naruto's parents to their deaths in the first place. Deep in Kakashi's head, there is a disgusting little voice that says, "Well, _you_ could have---", but he cuts off it as he is used to doing these days, "No, I couldn't have." Kakashi knows well that he couldn't have saved them: neither his sensei, nor Kushina-san, and that's why the feeling of guilt inside Kakashi is no stronger than a homeless stray who barks at you, too scared to bite, because it knows that within Kakashi, scarier things could be found.

"Kakashi-sensei! Do you know...?"  
"Check this out, Kakashi-sensei!"  
"I can do this, Kakashi-sensei!"  
Unlike Naruto, Sasuke doesn't usually ask questions. He manages to do everything correctly from the start without additional explanations. And always puts on a face as if he is doing Kakashi a great favour by letting him be his teacher. Sakura tries to carefully hide her childish enthusiasm whenever she is confronted with something new to seem older, cooler and more serious. Kakashi can see right through those two and sometimes he wants to laugh at their "adult attitudes". When it comes to Naruto though, one can only try ignoring him and even that doesn't always work. He doesn't try to be anyone other than himself, doesn't put on an act, doesn't want to deceive. One cannot laugh _at_ Naruto, one can only laugh _with_ him.

Kakashi wants to chuck teaching these three. To show to everyone that he really is a bad mentor: to himself, to the kids, to other sensei, to the Lord Third and, most of all, to Gai who believes in his friend so much that Kakashi is really tempted to seriously disappoint him. But Kakashi just cannot bring himself to do that. These children are the first team that he holds some kind of hope for. He tries to understand why, keeps watching them carefully during training and secretly spy on them afterwards. Teachers have a scarily huge amount of spare time that Kakashi knows not what to do with: even he only can spend so much time at the graveyard. Finally, it dawns on Kakashi: it's all because of Naruto. He has this magic about him. Of course, Minato-sensei and Kushina-san were well-loved by the children, respected in the village, but it was always just the two of them. They didn't even have close friends except for Jiraiya-sama. Yes, they cared about others and tried to do their best to make their lives better, but their world actually only consisted of two people. Naruto's world has no boundaries or limits. He wants to be there for everyone, to get to know everyone, to become everyone's friend and to do something important for every person he meets. Most importantly, he also knows how to. Maybe for now, the way he can find a key to each person is subconscious, but Kakashi is really looking forward to Naruto realising what he can do in the future. He wonders how many people will get included into Naruto's world when the chuunin exams would come.

Kakashi looks at Naruto and sees Naruto. We are more than the union of what our parents are. Kakashi smiles contentedly: for some reason, this thought satisfies him.


	8. Gai/Obito: G, childhood crushes.

"Next time I'll win, Beastface! You just got lucky during the exam!"  
Obito can't stand the way that... that... that... _him!!!_ grins and looks absolutely superior, because Obito can feel his own cheeks redden and his voice sounds so childish. In contrast to him, Gai is a picture of content calm and his smile isn't even smug — which is the worst part — it's encouraging. As if he is perfectly confident that Obito will actually win next time and is even looking forward to it. Obito wishes he had that much confidence in himself. 

Everything about Gai annoys Obito: the way he looks, the way he moves, the way he talks, the way he smiles and, especially, the way he hangs onto Kakashi, while Kakashi doesn't even like him! Of course, Obito doesn't like Gai either, but he could really do better than the Hatake prodigy as far as friends go. Oh right, excuse me, they aren't friends, they're rivals. Bah!  
"Stupid Beastface!" yells Obito and runs away.

Gai catches up with him in a moment and looks at him curiously.  
"You know, Papa says that often, when boys are mean, they actually like the person they are mean to. It's wrong and they shouldn't behave like this, but they don't know any better. So, in case you like me, I think you should stop being mean to me. We could just talk normally."  
Obito stops dead in his tracks, his face is burning, "I! Don't! Like! You!"  
Gai furrows his stupid eyebrows, "Oh, I see. I don't think I did something mean to _you_ , but I'm sorry anyway. I'd like to have a good relationship with you! We are comrades and will one day fight for the village together."  
After this, Gai storms off. Obito stares: Gai is still annoying, but also kinda... cute. He even apologised for something he clearly didn't do. Obito feels a tinge of guilt. Great...

***

"I'm sorry I called you Beastface."  
Obito must admit, it's pretty impressive that Gai can shake his head and speak with such a normal voice while doing push-ups.  
"It's not about the name. I like beasts!! They are strong and courageous and proud. I think being a beast is cool!! But you don't think that. You meant it to be an insult instead."  
"You're so weird!" Obito exclaims. "No wonder you don't have any friends!"  
"I have a Rival," Gai proclaims proudly and then, as if remembering something, "but now that we apologised to each other and you came to spend time with me, we could be friends too!"

Obito frowns. Gai is still doing push-ups and it's annoying. Gai is so strange and stupid and such a loser. But, frankly, so is Obito. And Gai is at least getting somewhere, with all his crazy training. During the exam, he didn't get lucky, he showed his skill. Obito remembers Gai's smooth movements, his strength and grace and balance ...and slams emergency brakes on that train of thought, but the realisation has already hit him. He actually _admires_ Gai. And is kinda jealous of him. And wants to be like him. Well, certainly not in everything, Obito would like to keep his own fashion sense, thank you very much. 

Obito thinks about what Gai said the other day. It seems he was right, Obito does like him in a way. But in what way exactly? Suddenly, Obito is reminded of what other boys keep blabbering on about: holding hands with village girls, getting a peck on the cheek and proudly saying who they are going to marry one day. Surely, he doesn't like Gai _like that_?! No, no, no way. And yet, Obito thinks of holding Gai's hand after a training together and blushes deeply.  
"Are you okay?" Gai stands up and comes close to Obito. He means to be helpful, but really isn't.  
"Yeah," manages Obito in a small voice, then coughs and suggests, "wanna race to the village gates... Or something?"  
"Sure," Gai grins and Obito feels like his entire face, from ear to ear, is on fire.


End file.
